Imagine a group of people excited about enjoying each other’s company while playing the game of monopoly. The game begins and as usual problems arise and new concepts need to be added that had not ever come up before so everyone turns to the official instructions. One person reads them to all but afterwards the game is still not working out right.
Something must be wrong says one person, who grabs the official instructions again thinking the first person must have read them wrong. Everyone has to hear the instructions again and when they proceed they continue to arrive at place that clearly outlines they must be playing the game wrong.
A couple of people give up saying this game of monopoly is no fun. Others leave too but they blame it on the readers of the instructions thinking they must have impure motives and are only reading what they want. Either way the group dwindles down to the most faithful few. Every once and awhile the faithful invite new people to come and play to replace those that have left but they too experience “crash and burn” and leave.
“This is the way we have always played it I just don’t understand what wrong” says one of the readers but I think if we change the instructions we can get more people to play. I also vote to open up a Café so we can get fresh coffee as we are playing. Another player pipes in “I too have an idea. We need more comfortable seats to play in and maybe get some music in the background. Everyone smiles; surely this will make the game more fun and meaningful.
Two of the players look at each other like something is wrong but they decide to talk alone. In agreement later they come to the group and tell them that they don’t feel comfortable with the changes and that they are going to call the creator of the game. The whole group scowls at them, calls them “rebels” and tells them they can’t ever play with them again unless they are willing to obey the new “official” rules.
Hurt by the attitude of their old friends these two decide to meet together to enjoy each other company. We need to talk to the creator of this game instead of adding our own opinions one says and quickly his friend agrees. The next day they call the creator together and he tells them that the game is a 3D game and nothing will work unless they wear 3D glasses. Upon purchasing the 3D glasses they read the instructions and play and the game. This time it’s so much fun the end up playing for hours together.
With the 3D glasses they are able to read the official instructions correctly and they come to find out that true success in the game is the growth of the love and relationships between the players not the buying and purchasing of land and house or how much “fake” money one has.
They decide to go back and share their good news with the original players but they will not hear anything that comes from “the rebels”. “We are comfortable here with our new and improved game of monopoly and even more important we are playing the way we were taught” they say.
“Coffee is as good as Starbucks says another and we play once a week and for only one hour and twenty minutes so nobody has to spend all day with the game and we can go back to life. “Besides there are more of us than them so obviously we must have the real game so don’t let those rebels affect you” says the official reader.
Its 2011, The First Monopoly group of Jacksonville Florida has incorporated and they have chapters all over who do things exactly like they do. Everyone who has come up with a new idea has been kicked out and those that were kicked out also kick out anyone who disagrees with them. Monopoly groups are everywhere. Everyone thinks they have the right instructions. Nobody is having much fun.
The original intent of the creator of fostering love and strengthening relationships between the players is unheard of today. The official readers have set up schools to train more official readers to read the instructions they way they read them. When they graduate new groups “pay” them to come and be their official readers. If you ask one of the graduates why they don’t use 3D glasses they say it make the game too unpredictable.
Those that use the 3D glasses are having a great time but they are not so worried about public promotion of the way they play. They live forever indebted to the creator because it isn’t a game to them anymore but a way of life. Their life is the game and the game has become their life. Because of the wonderful effects it has had on their relationships, they have become an example to some of the dissatisfied from the original group who are now starting to join them. The creator would be proud of them.
It is so funny; all the 3D players play the game exactly the same no matter what part of the world they are from even if they have never played together. May their tribe increase!
If you need help translating parts of this parable I recommend you get some 3D glasses.
Jose L Bosque
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